Energy Transition Zone Ltd meeting information: EIR release

Information requested

Details of all meetings its Ministers or Officials have held with the Energy Transition Zone Ltd since the start of 2025. Please also provide details of any meetings held with Sir Ian Wood.

This should include briefings prepared ahead of the meetings, any correspondence between the Minister(s) and ETZ Ltd or Sir Ian, and minutes of the meetings themselves.

Please provide this information as electronic copies to the above email address.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'.

Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy, in the format you have asked for, of some of the information you requested.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs [Personal Information] applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

An exception under regulation 10(4)(e) [Internal Communications] applies to some of the information requested because it relates to internal communications. This exception is subject to the 'public interest test' and, taking into account all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. The information withheld relates to particular elements of briefing materials for Scottish Government Ministers and internal notes of meetings relating to wider energy policy. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

An exception under regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs [Substantial Prejudice to Confidentiality of Commercial Information] applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception is subject to the 'public interest test' and, taking into account all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. The information withheld relates to the commercial interests of third parties. Disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the confidentiality of commercial information related to third parties and thus cause substantial harm to their commercial interests. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500476208 - Information released - Annex

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